FC Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukrainian: Шахтар Донецьк) is a Ukrainian professional football club, playing in the city of Donetsk, the capital of Donetsk region.The club was originally formed in May 1936 and was initially named Stakhanovets after Aleksei Stakhanov, a coal-miner in the Donbas. The first success for the team was in 1951, when then-renamed Shakhtar took third-place in the USSR Championship.In 1996, Rinat Akhmetov took over as president and subsequently invested heavily in the club.In the newly independent Ukraine, Shakhtar along with Dynamo Kyiv became perennial first place competitors. In 1999, a Shakhtar Football academy was opened and now hosts football training for roughly 3000 children.For the last several seasons Shakhtar has the highest home attendance in a league, averaging at about 20,000 per game.In 2009, they became the first team from Ukraine to win an European competition, the UEFA Cup, beating Werder Bremen in the final, with goals from Brazilians Luiz Adriano and Jadson.
